Beattie served as a White House speechwriter during the first Trump administration before resigning over attendance at a controversial conference.
Former White House speechwriter and Revolver News founder Darren Beattie will serve in a key position in the State Department, a source familiar with the matter has confirmed to The Epoch Times.
Beattie will be acting undersecretary for diplomacy and public affairs. The position oversees the bureaus of Global Public Affairs and Education and Cultural Affairs and participates in the development of foreign policy.
The role is seen as one of the top 10 jobs in the critical department, which is already driving significant changes to U.S. foreign policy through major changes to the government agency for distributing foreign aid, USAID.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been appointed USAID’s acting administrator while those in the administration “evaluate the agency and ensure it is in alignment with an America First agenda,” according to a Feb. 3 post on social media platform X by the State Department.
Beattie’s role reports directly to Rubio, according to the State Department’s most recent organizational chart.
A State Department webpage outlining the position states that it “leads America’s public diplomacy outreach, which includes messaging to counter terrorism and violent extremism” while also helping to shape foreign policy.
Beattie graduated from the University of Chicago, where he studied mathematics and economics. He went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy from Duke University, where he focused on the work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger.
He was an early intellectual backer of President Donald Trump, signing a statement of support for the then-presidential candidate in 2016 as part of a group called “Scholars & Writers for America.”
Beattie then joined the Trump White House as a speechwriter. He left that post in 2018 amid controversy over his attendance at a gathering of the H.L. Mencken Club, where he appeared on a panel with immigration restrictionist Peter Brimelow.
During the lame-duck period after the 2020 election, the Trump administration appointed Beattie to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
“Huge honor and responsibility!” Beattie wrote on X at the time. The Biden administration forced his resignation from that post in January 2022.
Beattie is also the founder of Revolver News, which has published investigations of federal involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, among other topics.
In a statement to Revolver News readers, Beattie wrote that “we have entered the beginning of a new Golden Age—of success, prosperity, legitimacy, and accountability.”
“Helping Secretary Rubio and my esteemed colleagues in the State Department fulfill President Trump’s agenda will require every ounce of my focus and energy, and accordingly, I will for the time being suspend my direct editorial involvement in Revolver News,” Beattie wrote.
Beattie’s elevation has received plaudits from Claremont Institute senior fellow Jeremy Carl, who also served in the first Trump administration.
“Darren is a brilliant guy (did his Ph.D. at Duke on Heidegger) who understands both comms and the Deep State,” Carl wrote on X.
The Anti-Defamation League has already condemned the appointment of Beattie, who describes himself on his X profile as a “proud Jew.”
“Darren Beattie has no place in a role representing American values abroad,” the organization wrote on X.
At the State Department, Beattie will serve alongside another key Trump loyalist and intellectual, Michael Anton.
Anton, who worked on communications for the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, was tapped this time for director of policy planning, another key position in the State Department.
Anton authored a seminal September 2016 essay endorsing Trump, “The Flight 93 Election.”